Lara Pulver: 'Sherlock' star recycles on set and off

She plays a dominatrix in the hit British import.

On the London set of the "PBS Masterpiece Mystery!" series "Sherlock," which returns for its second season May 6, recycling practices were firmly in place, reports Lara Pulver. "The whole of the U.K. is recycle-crazy. We have different color bins for different trash. We have to separate glass and metal — it's more specific than here," says Pulver, who lives in both London and Los Angeles and does the same at home.

In "A Scandal in Bohemia," the first of three new episodes of the contemporary telling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales, Pulver plays dominatrix Irene Adler opposite Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes and Martin Freeman's Dr. Watson. "It was just the best piece of writing that I'd read in a long time," says the actress, who'd seen the first season while she was shooting "True Blood," and loved it. "It's such a privilege to be asked to join the show."

Her character's profession necessitated a nude scene, a first for Pulver. "I was a closed set. I had on just shoes, earrings and lipstick," she says, at first self-conscious of her lack of clothes. "It was no mean feat for me to shoot for eight hours being naked. But then something goes on in your head that changed the whole dynamic," says Pulver, who realized, "'I'm naked, but I have all the power.' It's a device for her to gain control over the most intelligent man she's ever met. It was like a game of chess. Sherlock has never met his match in that way; there have always been other things preoccupying his brain. On the list of one to ten, sex has been at the bottom."

She prepared by shopping for corsets and whips and doing research, mostly online. "If anyone had got a hold of my computer the week before we started I would have been in prison," she laughs. "My future lovers will benefit for sure."